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Cafesjian gem collection worth more than $1M to be sold in Denver

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  • Cafesjian gem collection worth more than $1M to be sold in Denver

    The Denver Post, CO
    July 6 2014


    Cafesjian gem collection worth more than $1M to be sold in Denver

    By Thad Moore

    Before he died in September at age 88, Gerard Cafesjian amassed a huge
    collection of art, jewelry and gems. Much of the fine art now is
    housed in the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Armenia, and more than
    900 pieces of jewelry were auctioned in Chicago in April, a collection
    worth $1.8 million . But his huge collection of lapidary art, minerals
    and gems -- valued at at least $1 million -- is now in Denver, being
    prepared for sale in September by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

    The collection of more than 700 pieces arrived last month in a pair of
    box trucks from the West Publishing Co. executive's Florida home.

    An agate carving of a falcon on a copper base. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

    Cafesjian had a staff dedicated to crating and shipping his valuable
    objects, and so they arrived immaculately packed, said Alexander
    Eblen, the auction house's natural history director.

    Cafesjian began his career as a legal editor for West Publishing and
    rose through the ranks. He retired in 1996, when the legal publishing
    and research company was sold to Thompson Publishing.

    Eblen spent more than a week unpacking and assessing the objects,
    which include gems and minerals from places like South Africa, Brazil
    and Colorado, and elements of what he described as a "pretty
    stupendous" menagerie of stone carvings.

    Managing and sorting such a large and diverse collection is chaotic.
    Packing materials mingle with photo equipment in the Chicago-based
    auction house's Cherokee Street office. Boxes are stacked along nearly
    every wall, from its front entrance to the loading dock.

    In one crate, there's an eagle carved from a single piece of ruby
    weighing some 50 pounds. Elsewhere, there's a realistic falcon made
    from agate and perched on a copper base, and a pink morganite sea
    turtle mounted on a piece of clear quartz.

    Detail of a small portion of a large, 500 pound purple amethyst. (Andy
    Cross, The Denver Post)

    There are about 200 pieces like them, Eblen said, including a large
    number of works by some of the world's best lapidary artists in
    Idar-Oberstein, Germany.

    "What's so interesting is just the quantity of the single-owner
    collection, the diversity of it, some of the crazy, fantasy pieces
    that can be made from these pieces," said Annie McLagan, one of two
    auctioneers handling the sale. "It's startling."

    The collection includes unusual raw gem specimens, some collected from
    Colorado, and a 500-pound amethyst geode cut to serve as a coffee
    table.

    A fine rhodochrosite crystal from the "Corner Pocket", Sweet Home
    Mine, Alma, Colorado. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post file)

    The auction -- held in person and online Sept. 15 -- will be previewed
    during the Denver Gem & Mineral Show Sept. 12-14. The show is one of
    the world's largest, said James Hagadorn, geology curator for the
    Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

    Between 5,000 and 10,000 come to the show at Denver Mart each year,
    inspiring a pair of secondary shows and other sales, Hagadorn said.
    Each year, sellers convert hotel rooms into makeshift showrooms,
    making it a week-long event. The size of the show -- one of the three
    largest in the world, Hagadorn said -- speaks to the size of Colorado's
    collecting community.

    Metro Denver alone has eight gem and mineral clubs, and it's one of
    the largest such communities in the world, Hagadorn said.

    "It's grown and grown and grown," Hagadorn said. "It's not as big as
    the Stock Show, but in 10 more years, it might be."

    Colorado ranked No. 8 in the nation for gemstone mining in 2011, worth
    $440,000, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Foreign stones are
    brought here, too, to be processed, Hagadorn said.

    And, he said, mining is embedded in the state's history: It led to
    Denver's founding, helped lead Colorado to statehood and drove people
    to the mountains.

    "They're full of minerals, they're full of rocks and they're full of
    fossils," Hagadorn said. "There are phenomenal specimens that have
    been coming out of these mountains for 100 years."

    http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26092323/cafesjian-gem-collection-worth-more-than-1m-be

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